Will you please, please, please add the fingerprint button

DoctorDan

Will you please, please, please add the fingerprint button to the screen on fingerprint enabled ios devices. The fingerprint readers only work about 80% of the time and my password is looong. On my older ipads I can tap the fp icon, enter my passcode and be done. I want/need the same option on the newer devices when the fp reader fails.

Thank you

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Ben

Hi @DoctorDan,

Thanks for the feedback!

For now you may want to consider removing and then re-adding your fingerprints to iOS if Touch ID is failing that often. My empirical experience with Touch ID is that it is much more reliable than 80% -- but I did spend some time when adding my fingerprints to make sure it got them recorded correctly.

Thanks!

Ben

DoctorDan

The problem is that, as I said the reader is flaky. It will fail 3 times which throws 1pw into permanent lockout mode until the MP is entered or the ipad is restarted. But if left alone, the ipad may start recognizing fingerprints a few minutes later. So, the current behavior creates a real impediment. Owe it all to the fact that I have become totally dependent on you, but typing a 20 character password over and over is really tedious.

Ben

I understand. My point was that some of the flakiness you are experiencing may be corrected by removing and re-adding your fingerprints.

But I'll be happy to pass the suggestion along to our development team. :)

Ben

DoctorDan

I have done this 5 separate times over the past 6 months and have (per a suggestion on the web) assigned three of the finger slots to my right index finger. The flakiness is like this:

• the iPad won't recognize my finger but immediately after entering the pin, 1PW DOES recognize the finger.
• the iPad recognizes my finger but immediately 1PW will not.
• the iPad recognizes my finger, 1PW recognizes my finger and then an hour later 1PW will not.

This suggests that there is nothing wrong with the stored finger definitions but that the sensor or some other software component is flaky. If you would just add the fingerprint button to your login screen (like on those devices that don't have a reader) I could log in with my PIN and be done with it instead of have three failed fingerprint attempts and THEN being required to reenter my 21 character master password. I may be presumptuous, by it seems like such a little thing to expose the button on all platforms instead of selectively hiding it, and it would be such a great help to those like me with limited patience.

I implore you to provide a way to sidestep this annoying 'bug' in the iPad.

Ben

DoctorDan,

If this were a common problem then it might make sense to do that, but I'm not sure I'd agree it makes sense to change the way our software works in order to work around a hardware problem that is not often encountered (or at least not often reported to us).

Have you taken the iPad to Apple for analysis?

Ben

DoctorDan

I have buying and using software and hardware for 40 years. I lost count about the 3,000th time someone told me I was the first one to experience or report an issue with a product. I also have 35 years of experience in writing software intended for use by the computer illiterate. I have become very sensitive to usability and aspects of design that have the potential to interefere with it. I do this by always using software like someone who flinked mind-reading 101 might.

As to your question about whether I have had Apple analyze it, no I haven't but consider this thread with 75 pages of replies:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5400101
"Q: Touch ID being Erratic
"Wife and I got iPhone 5s units at the same time. She has had hit and miss success with touch ID. I am golden with mine, and also hers when I put a finger into her phone data. She is frustrated, and will delete fingerprints and resestablish on her phone. Her finger scan will work for a few times, and then it gets to be like it doesn't recognize her finger (left thumb or right thumb). Is anybody else having some issues like this?"

Also, I can't find any reference to the existence of a diagnostic procedure or app. Losts of suggestions to clean and re-enroll.

I'm quite sure that the problem originates with my fingers because I alternate between using my computers and going woodworking, metal working, plumbing etc., activities that constantly change the properties of my skin.

Just having that little fingerprint button that would popup the pin-code keypad would solve everything. I gather that you have a strong philosophical objecttions to doing this. I'm sure it seems inelegant and untidy - a hack - but it sure would make my life easier.

Using 1PW on my older device is such a pleasure compared to using it on the iPhone 6s and ipad pro.

Thanks

AGAlumB

@DoctorDan: As you can imagine, we have a lot of iOS devices ourselves with Touch ID, and, given that 1Password for iOS (and now Mac) supports Touch ID, we hear from a lot of users who have it as well. Ben and I mentioned this not to minimize the frustration you're having, but to offer some perspective with regard to doing what you propose. We really need to prioritize based on what will do the most good for the greatest number of people.

But while we haven't personally encountered the specific issue you're experiencing with Touch ID, we've definitely had our share of infuriating, baffling, or otherwise confusing problems with technology. And personally, I've found Apple to be really helpful in these cases. Their discussion forums are an easy way to interact with and get help from other users, but to my knowledge they are community-driven and not moderated by Apple employees, so I'd encourage you to seek help from Apple directly, since they're the only ones who can help with something that's at least an OS issue, and possibly a hardware problem.

I'd suggest disabling Touch ID completely and re-set-it-up from scratch, but it sounds like you may have already attempted that. We'll absolutely consider what you suggested, especially if this becomes a widespread problem or benefits others for different reasons entirely. But even in that case, it isn't something which will happen short term, so Apple will be you best bet, if for no other reason than getting that resolved will improve your iOS experience far beyond anything we could do to help. :blush:

DoctorDan

Thanks for listening, Your suggestion to disable touch id sounds like my best option, especially if I don't re-enable it.

It must be harder than I thought to expose that button. I'll wait patiently in the hope that you find a way to do it at some point in the future. I believe that there are users who haven't asked for this because they only have one device (with touch) and have never seen or used the button. When I first saw it I had no idea what it was for and had to ask you.

Anyway and as you can tell, I have become totally dependent on 1PW. While there are a couple of features I would like to see, like a favorites item on the ipad "send to" menu, overall I think it's a great app, I am very satisfied with it and recommend it frequently.

Thanks for your help

Ben

Thanks again for the continued feedback, and the kind words. :)

Ben

DoctorDan

See https://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2017/jan/20/why-you-should-install-a-set-of-winter-fingerprints-on-your-phone
for more evidence that difficulty with "normally" fp readers is common.

Ben

Great article! Thanks for sharing, DoctorDan. I haven't personally run into this much but I'm sure there are many who have.

Ben

DoctorDan

Just an fyi relayed to my request for the fingerprint button on fp-enabled devices:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/02/the-myth-of-apples-great-design/516093/

"The iPhone is no better off. Starting with the iPhone 5S, first released in 2014, Apple adopted a software-controlled fingerprint sensor mounted on the home button. Known as Touch ID, the feature allows users to authenticate to unlock the phone, download products from the App Store, and make payments at participating retailers with Apple Pay. But even the slightest disturbance on a finger makes Touch ID unreliable. Washed your hands recently? Ate a banana? Dug in the dirt of the garden? Touched something too warm, or too cold, for too long? Good luck authenticating with your fingerprint. A mere inconvenience when unlocking the phone, but Apple Pay won’t work at all without Touch ID. So fat chance using that new digital wallet on a rainy day, or after tactilely interacting with worldly substances."

That's why I asked for it and why, I'm sure, I'm bot the only one who could benefit from it.
Thanks

Ben

That's why I asked for it and why, I'm sure, I'm bot the only one who could benefit from it.

And yet (and please don't take this wrong): you're the only one to comment in this thread. We just haven't seen a big demand for this. If we were seeing tens or hundreds of reports per day that Touch ID was failing people then I'd absolutely agree we might need to re-evaluate how this is currently handled. But we don't. In fact we see very few.

If Touch ID is truly this unreliable for you and you'd prefer to use a PIN instead of Touch ID you can do so by completely disabling Touch ID. Do so first in 1Password, and then on the device itself. You'll need to have a PIN/passcode set for the device, and then you can set a PIN for 1Password. We would recommend using a different PIN for 1Password than the passcode you set for the device.

Ben

DoctorDan

I hate to keep raising this issue but 1PW on my iPad Pro is driving me nuts. As I have said the fingerprint reader is unreliable. If I wash my hands, handle moist objects or work on projects that create dust, the sensor will not recognize me. Sometimes the Login will no recognize my FP by 1PW will. Sometimes the Login will recognize me FP but 1PW won't. Sometimes neither will.

My last move was to disable FP on iPad settings and in 1PW settings. The iPad then, of course, gives me the keypad so I can enter my passcode. On my non-FP iPads, 1PW also gives me a keypad to enter my code.

On the iPad Pro with FP disabled, 1PW gives me ONLY the password prompt whenever I open the app (regardless of the timeout setting) and, if I try to use 1PW from the sharing icon in Safari, it also gives me the password prompt every time - even if I just logged into the app.

The way 1PW works on the iPad 3 is acceptable. The way it seems to work on the iPad Pro is unacceptable, verging on unusable.

I again beseech you to do something to fix this - I'm about ready to throw in the towel.

Compounding my frustration is the fact that on the Mac, 1PW is failing to fill the name and PW fields on web sites more and more often. I'm sure this is mostly the fault of "creative" web developers but LastPass somehow manages to attach their icon to name and password text fields which seems to be able to directly fill one field at a time as an laternative to attempting to address the entire page (which it also can do).

I am no doubt an outlier with respect to both my experience and my expectations - or maybe I'm just sensitive to things that others experience by just "grin and bear".

I might add that the major feature that attracted me to 1PW in the first place was the fact that nothing resided on a remote server that offered a web interface into the vault. That's why I switched from LastPass. If I go with your latest program (the family thing or whatever it is called) it appears that you have introduced the feature that I was trying to avoid - a remote server with a GUI into the vault.

In any case I hope that you can see your way clear to do something about the iPad Pro when operating in non-FP mode in the very near future.

AGAlumB

@DoctorDan: I'm not actually sure which Touch ID sensor the iPad Pro is using (or if it differs between models). On my iPhone 6 (older sensor), I've now got "summer", "winter", and "rainy season" fingerprints saved, and that's helped immensely. But I haven't found that to be necessary on my other devices (newer sensors).

As Ben mentioned, if you disable Touch ID completely (removing fingerprints as well) in iOS settings, it won't be abatable to 1Password either, and it will have to fall back on the legacy PIN option (since it thinks your device doesn't have Touch ID hardware even at that point). Did you try that?

We don't have any plans to add a tertiary (after Touch ID and Master Password) unlock option though, especially one that would be less secure than both, effectively weakening the security for the others by offering a lower-common-denominator option.

If you're having issues with login filling, please post the details in the browser filling category of the forums so we can help with that. And if you don't want a 1Password.com membership, you can keep using exactly what you have. Cheers! :)

DoctorDan

I've got outch id turned off in both ipad and 1PW. 1PW doesn't say/offer anything about legacy PIN and no fingerprint icon shows next to the password field (like it does on the iPad 3).

Ben

@DoctorDan,

If you've removed your fingerprints from iOS and disabled Touch ID then 1Password will not even have an option to enable Touch ID. Instead it'll have a PIN code option. Please make sure you've completely removed all fingerprints from iOS.

Ben

DoctorDan

You're right about that. I have some recollection of ios asking me to redo the finger prints when I re-enabled FPs once before but I'm probably mistaken. After deleting them the PIN code setting appeared as you described. Thanks.

It would still be nice if they could coexist so you could use the FP if it worked and use the PIN id it didn't.

AGAlumB

Glad to hear that removing the fingerprints (wow, that sounds ominous) helped. Cheers! :)